British travellers stranded by the volcanic ash cloud vented their increasing frustration at the government's much-vaunted rescue operation.

Exhausted holidaymakers and travellers waited in Calais for the arrival of HMS Ocean and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, but neither vessel came.

The operation to turn Madrid airport into a major hub for an estimated 40,000 British travellers stranded on other continents began as five coaches carried 200 people towards Channel ports.

After a day of confusion about whether the 100 or more coaches promised by Gordon Brown would eventually appear, the first relieved passengers left the airport at 9pm.

"We were a bit nervous that this wasn't going to happen, but it is a big relief," said Jenny Heard from Devon, who had been stranded in Madrid with her husband and two small children since their flight from Johannesburg was diverted on Friday.

"At least we are heading in the right direction," she said as her family boarded a coach.

The first travellers to get on the government-funded coaches were those who had contacted the British embassy, which has stands at two of the airport terminals.

Ambassador Giles Paxman said the five coaches were part of what could become a major operation to get 40,000 stranded Britons back into Europe and home. "Today is just the start," he said. "We have more resources and more people on the way." He said the operation was aimed at those arriving from outside Europe. People already in Spain and elsewhere should find their own way to Channel ports, he said.

British consular officials in Madrid had faced angry travellers arriving at the airport in the hope of getting on a coach and recommended that the best course of action was for "everyone to make their own way to the Channel".

The pledge of decisive intervention, including using the navy in a Dunkirk-style rescue, had sparked positive headlines for Brown. It also raised expectations among shattered British travellers – an estimated 400,000 of whom are thought to be stranded around the world – that their ordeal would be over soon.

"It doesn't mean much if [the warship's] not here, does it?" said Mereana McKenzie, a Sussex schoolteacher waiting among the crowds in Calais. "It's just political expediency, isn't it?" added Brian Green, from Hythe, near Dover. "It's just political expediency isn't it?" added Brian Green, from Hythe, near Dover.

Led by Lord Mandelson, ministers announced on Sunday that the navy would sail to the rescue of stranded Britons. But yesterday, Ministry of Defence officials admitted the vessels were unlikely to play any part in bringing people home.

The Ark Royal had been ordered to abandon an exercise off northwest Scotland and was stationed off the south-west coast of England. It will remain in the area until given the green light to join a Nato exercise in the Atlantic.

Whitehall officials said the idea for a naval rescue had come out of the blue and no clear thought had been given to the idea before it was announced. The first thing defence officials knew about the proposal was an announcement by ministers including Lord West of Spithead, security minister at the Home Office and former head of the navy, after a hastily arranged meeting of the government's civil contingencies committee on Sunday. HMS Ocean, one of the ships proposed for the now unlikely rescue mission, is too big to dock at Calais, but could do so later at Cherbourg, 290 miles away, Whitehall sources added.

The Conservatives, who supported the use of the navy, questioned the government's planning of the rescue. "It is unclear exactly what instructions the Royal Navy have been given, and whether there is a proper cross-departmental strategy for getting our stranded citizens home," said Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary.

Around 280 travellers did set sail from Santander in northern Spain aboard HMS Albion, alongside 450 troops returning from duty in Afghanistan.

The civilians had been identified by British consular officials as the most vulnerable. They included Stanley Johnson, the 69-year-old father of London mayor, Boris, who had been in the Galapagos islands, as well as an under-15 football squad stranded in Madrid.

In the absence of warships at Calais, cross-channel ferries appeared to be coping with demand and processed as many as 12,000 passengers.

In the morning, the queue for tickets was a couple of minutes. This rose to two hours later in the day following David Miliband's advice that stranded passengers try to get to Calais.

"We'd love to go home in style," said Anne Gray, who had travelled overland with her husband Derek from Rome.

"When I heard about [the warships] I thought that it would make all the hassle go away, and I hope it does for some people. But we're not going to wait for it now." French officials made no secret of their irritation at the Downing Street plan. "You tell me what we're supposed to do with that," said one official, gesturing to a picture of the two warships. "They are big, they are long. To get either of them into the port or out of it would take longer than the actual crossing."

The official had not been contacted by the British authorities about the imminent arrival of either vessel, he added. "In my opinion this is not official," he said.